“There’s Xhinna!” Terin called over her shoulder, pointing down to a forlorn figure coming from Fiona’s weyr and scanning the skies above her anxiously. “Wait until she finds out I’m as old as she is!”
Fiona twitched at the words and the worries they aroused in her. Xhinna was a distant memory, a treasured friend buried in a mountain of moments they had not and would never share.
Fiona was suddenly aware that Terin had turned her head to face her. “What is it?”
Fiona shook her head slowly, unable to find the words. Somehow, Terin guessed; she looked into Fiona’s eyes and told her, “No matter what the future, you will always be the Weyrwoman to me!”
Fiona smiled gratefully and, buoyed by those words, took Talenth down, back to her Weyr—and her home.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am very pleased once more to acknowledge Shelly Shapiro, ace editor at Del Rey, for her patience, encouragement, perseverance, and grit. I would also like to acknowledge, also once again, the marvelous Martha Trachtenberg for her brilliant copyediting. I would like to thank Judith Welsh, my editor at Transworld, for her keen insights and constant encouragement.
Donald Maass has been my literary agent since the very beginning, when he put me through a grueling two-hour phone interview when I first considered writing Dragonsblood. He continues to hold me to everhigher standards.
Of course, none of this would be possible without Mum: Anne McCaffrey—love you!
Needless to say, any errors, omissions, or just strange ol’ words are mine, all mine, and no one else’s.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
TODD MCCAFFREY is the bestselling author of the Pern novel Dragonsblood, as well as Dragon’s Fire and Dragon’s Kin, which he co-wrote with his mother, Anne McCaffrey. A computer engineer, he currently lives in Los Angeles. Having grown up in Ireland with the epic of the Dragonriders of Pern, he is bursting with ideas for new stories of that world, its people, and its dragons. Visit the author’s website at www.toddmccaffrey.org.
By Todd McCaffrey
DRAGONSBLOOD
DRAGONHEART
Nonfiction
DRAGONHOLDER
By Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey
DRAGON’S KIN
DRAGON’S FIRE
DRAGON HARPER
Dragonheart is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright 2008 by Todd McCaffrey and Anne McCaffrey
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Del Rey,
an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
DEL REY is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McCaffrey, Todd.
Dragonheart : Anne McCaffrey’s dragonriders of Pern / Todd McCaffrey.
p. cm.
1. Dragons—Fiction. 2. Pern (Imaginary place)—Fiction. 3. Life on other planets—Fiction. 4. Space colonies—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3563.A25525D73 2008
813’.54—dc22 2008027996
www.delreybooks.com
eISBN: 978-0-345-50973-4
v3.0
Dragonheart Page 61
